Gwen and Art are Not in Love (Review)

Information:

• Author: Lex Croucher
• Genre: Historical, Romance
• Page Count: 400
• Year Published: 2023

Read This If You Like:

• British novels/authors
• Queer Representation
• Alternate History
• Enemies-to-friends
• Fake Dating Trope (but reimagined)
• Dual POV but in 3rd person
• Terrible(ish) jokes

Spoiler-Free Summary:

Gwendoline, the princess of England, and Arthur, the descendent of King Arthur, have been in an arranged marriage since birth. Which isn’t helping since both of them happen to also have hated each other for as long as they have been betrothed. Arthur is forced to stay with Gwen in Camelot for the summer , and an already rocky start gets worse when the same night Arthur arrives, Gwen finds him kissing a boy, and Arthur manages to find Gwen’s diary that contains romantic confessions about Bridget Leclair, the only female knight in the kingdom. The two then realize that they would make better partners than rivals, and agree to cover for each other as they pursue their real love interests. As the royal tournament season starts, Gwen starts to connect with Bridget, and Arthur begins to connect with Gabriel, Gwen’s brother and the future king of England.

Review/Opinions:

This is an absolutely enjoyable read for fans of alternate history storylines. It’s sort of a retelling of the Arthur and Gwendolyn tale due to the characters, but also changes so much of the story that it’s more its own story at this point. Anyway, it is one of the most delightful stories I’ve read in a while.

This book greatly transforms the normal fake-dating trope. The whole point of the story is that Gwen and Art don’t end up falling for each other in the end, and instead fall for alternate love interests. It’s a fun way to change the traditional version of the trope (since fake dating is normally very predictable.) But there is a bit of an enemies-to-friends dynamic between Gwen and Arthur- they start as bickering rivals, but start to connect with each other over time (without falling for each other.)

Of course, we also need to talk about who Gwen and Arthur actually fall for. The relationships between Gwen/Bridget and Arthur/Gabriel were very fun and sweet, and also tender. The love interests are also unique as characters, especially Bridget, who has a huge role to play as the only female knight in Camelot, and has to deal with ridicule and tough remarks for it, but Gwen looks past the bias targeted towards her. I just wish we got a few extra romantic moments- it felt like scenes of romance were spread apart, especially for Bridget, who got significantly less page time than Gabriel, and there was a long period of time where neither Gwen or Art interacted with their love interests until the end of the book.

The following paragraph contains mild spoilers for the ending.

One thing I found weird was that there was a huge tonal shift in the last 50ish pages of the book. Essentially, a giant battle ends up breaking out and there’s a few moments of violence and injury (because the medieval ages were not always a fun time.) So it’s good you know that this book isn’t all lighthearted moments. There is a happy ending for the characters at least, but it’s a timeskip from after the battle, so it comes suddenly, especially since the previous chapter was a battle-focused one. But at least the lighthearted feeling came back and it didn’t end in tradegy.

Spoilers end here.

The last thing I want to mention about this book is the humor. The dialogue is some of the best I’ve read in a while, and it adds really well to the fun vibes of this one. There’s an amazing running joke about the high amount of versions of Excalibur the kingdom has had to make.

Overall, anyone looking for a fun alternate history story and queer love story should try this one out. It’s let down by tonal shifts and a bit of emptiness on the romantic aspects, but it’s still lighthearted, fun, and filled with love.